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15 Aug 2013

The Australian Government has failed to regulate prices and charges. That's why the country is fucked.

By Ben Grubb SMH
Would you pay $5931.90 for the installation of a landline in a suburban area?
That's what Telstra was attempting to charge small business owner Sonia Turkovic and her landlord son-in-law, Marc Edwards.
On February 17 last year the pair requested Telstra install a landline at Mrs Turkovic's new office on Moreland Road in Coburg, Victoria, where she runs a financial planning business.
At first everything seemed to be running smoothly, but then the quote arrived: $5931.90 for installation plus a $299 connection fee.
To make matters more frustrating, the pair couldn't get a third-party quote from an electrician because Telstra said the type of installation required a Telstra technician.
"It blew my mind," Mrs Turkovic said. "The quote was out of this stratosphere."
Because Telstra has a monopoly in the fixed-line space, there was virtually nothing she could do about the cost but complain.
The initial quote included Telstra digging up the pavement
outside her office to run a new conduit to the premises (containing
copper wire) and then reinstating the pavement.
This confused Mrs Turkovic because about 30 centimetres away
from her office's front door was a cable pit with the marking "PMG" on
it. PMG (Post Master General) was the organisation which ran Australia's
copper network before Telstra.
Because the pit was so close, Mr Edwards disputed the
installation cost on behalf of Mrs Turkovic and had it reduced to
$2639.62. But even after it was reduced, he still believed the cost to
be "ridiculous" and unreasonable.
Despite this, he agreed to have the installation completed on
the condition that he and Mrs Turkovic could dispute the $2639.62 cost
with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and Telstra.
But now, almost 18 months after the initial request for a
landline, and 14 months since the installation was completed, the two
are still disputing the cost and Telstra isn't budging, requesting for
payment to be made.
In a statement, Telstra said the installation involved more
than a standard landline connection, "including commercial works and
project management of internal Telstra and civil contractors".
"A complaint has been raised and we're following our usual
complaint management process," it said. "This is also the subject of an
open TIO investigation and we are working with the TIO to reach a
resolution."

Mr Edwards said the actual work done took a technician just
under three hours to complete. He said it wasn't completed until June
18, 2012, about four months after the landline was initially requested.
"We had to push Telstra really hard to get a second quote and
[it] was a lot lower but it was still $3000 to push one cable through a
bit of conduit, drill a hole in the wall and use $80... worth of
parts," Mr Edwards said.
Because of the delayed installation, Mr Edwards and Mrs
Turkovic have attempted to claim compensation worth $12,080, saying
Telstra broke its legislated Customer Service Guarantee.
While waiting for the landline to be installed, Mrs Turkovic
said she was without a business number for at least two months after
moving offices in April 2012.
She said she had stationery, signage and advertising printed
with her Telstra-assigned number and that customers were being told it
was disconnected when they tried to call, putting her reputation at
risk.
The Customer Service Guarantee states that a "new connection
without infrastructure or spare capacity" should be completed "within 20
working days (equivalent to 1 month) after request".
If the work isn't done within the time specified, the CSG
tells business customers they may be entitled to $24.20 for each working
day that Telstra misses, for the first five working days of delay.
After the initial five working days, they may be entitled to receive a
payment of $48.40 per additional working day of delay, it adds.
Telstra said that as part of the complaint process it would
"be determined if the customer is eligible for CSG payment or
compensation".
Mr Edwards said he wanted to bring the delayed installation
and cost to light so that "maybe someone else won't have to go through
this".
Mrs Turkovic described her overall experience with Telstra as "exhausting" and "frustrating".

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